Photius of Yuriev

Photius of Yuriev was archimandrite and abbot of the Yuriev Monastery near Novgorod, who reposed in 1838. In the world he was called Peter Nikitich Spassky; he was born on 4 June 1792 into a deacon's family in the Novgorod region and became a monk in 1817.

He was a teacher of religion, he rose against the mystical currents of his time, and in 1822 he was appointed abbot of Yuriev. He wore chains of ascetic struggle, kept fasts and vigils, gave much alms with the help of Countess Anna Orlova-⁠Chesmenskaya, his spiritual daughter, and part of the people of Novgorod and Petersburg regarded him as a righteous man. At the same time, before the revolution, he was also regarded as a controversial figure, a fierce religious conservative, and his writings are hard to read. He reposed after a long illness on 26 February 1838 and was buried in the crypt of the underground church of the Yuriev Monastery. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization, and commemorated in the Greek synaxarion on 27 February.